Railgun Online Book 1 Chapter 5 – The Ancient Automaton

Note: I claim no ownership to any part of this story. It is by MisakaLovesYou on Wattpad and if you like it, support her. I personally did not and just want to make fun of the abysmal grammar I found in the story.

While all my comments are legitimate concerns I had, they are also mostly for comedy purposes. Also, I am a dick and will comment as such.

If I made any grammar mistakes in my fan-edit of this, you may feel free to mock me mercilessly for my transgression.

Mikoto Misaka screamed as she hammered her sword against Red-Eyed XaXa’s blade. Nothing but blind anger flew through her mind. She attacked relentlessly as XaXa frantically tried to block all of Mikoto’s blows.

His partner went on the attack as well, trying to take Mikoto from behind while XaXa distracted her. But Mikoto’s reflexes were in overdrive. She swung around, twirling her blade skillfully in one hand, knocking back both fighters with a vicious new resolve.

“This game…” Mikoto screamed as she slashed through XaXa’s partner, chipping his HP down to red. “…is a prison that’s trying to kill us!”

Mikoto turned her attention to XaXa, kicking his legs out from under him before hammering down at his blade with powerful overhead blows. “And yet you choose to help that prison kill us faster! You freaking monster!“

Red-Eyed XaXa was knocked back and to the ground, his health bar now in the red as well.

Mikoto barely noticed the rest of Laughing coffin attacking her. She shoved Asuna and Kirito aside without thinking, slicing through her opponents like a demon. She didn’t pay attention as her own health began to creep down to yellow, and then to red. Tears gushed from her eyes as she went on her blind rampage. Her blade was like brush, painting a picture of violence and anger.

“Misaka! Stop!” Kirito, with help from Asuna and the remaining KoB members, grabbed Mikoto from behind.

“What a beast…” Red-Eyed XaXa muttered. “Heheh… I wonder if it really is that Level 5 b*tch.”

Kirito grabbed XaXa by the collar of his clothing and glared at him. “Tell me right now, what do you know about her? What was it you were taunting her about?”

“Shhhh… I’m not telling,” said XaXa. “Tell Ms. Electromaster to remember my name well… ‘cause someday… I’m going to see her again… and next time, I will kill her.”

“No, you won’t,” said Kirito. “We’re taking you in, and you’re never getting out.”

“Keep thinking that, but this game has to end eventually,” said XaXa. “And when it’s over, we’ll be released back into society, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that…”

“Misaka!” Asuna called out. It had been hours, and Asuna was afraid she might never find Mikoto. Night had already fallen, but she knew that Mikoto wasn’t dead, because she hadn’t disappeared from her friends list.

Asuna sat down next to a tree and sighed. Kirito had finished with Laughing Coffin and gone out searching as well, but even he couldn’t figure out where Mikoto had gone.

What had Asuna most worried, was Mikoto’s not again.

Mikoto had been on boss raids and had seen people die every floor. She had even grieved for them. But Asuna couldn’t think of a time someone had sacrificed their life for her.

Mikoto wasn’t answering her messages, not even from Kirito. There had to be a better way to find her.

That’s when Asuna came across a golden sword lying on the ground. Asuna picked up the Static Smite. It had to be hers. Mikoto was the only person in the game who owned that weapon.

Asuna then saw a cave nearby.

She headed toward the entrance and found the cave didn’t go very deep. There was an old open chest that had once held a rare item. Mikoto was sitting with her back to the end of the cave. Her eyes were red from crying. One thing the game actually got right was representing a player’s emotions.

“Oh, Asuna… How’d you find me?” Mikoto said softly.

Asuna smiled and held Mikoto’s sword out to her.

“Oh… I don’t deserve that…” Mikoto muttered.

“What happened back there, Misaka?” said Asuna. “Are you okay?”

“Y-you’re asking if I’m okay?” Mikoto asked, bewildered.

“Well, yeah,” said Asuna. “Why wouldn’t I ask?”

“I didn’t think anybody would want to associate with me after what I did back there,” Mikoto replied.

“Kirito said you did something similar when you thought he died pushing you out of the way of a large monster trap,” said Asuna. “You went ballistic and raged through an entire horde of ghouls. It’s like if somebody gives their life for you… it terrifies you.”

“I’m not going to talk about it,” said Mikoto.

“Yes you are,” said Asuna, folding her arms sternly and sitting down next to Mikoto, “’cause we aren’t leaving this spot until you do.”

“Fine. I’ll sit here till somebody beats SAO,” said Mikoto.

“Well then, the Flash and the Railgun both just sitting around while everybody else tries to beat SAO on their own,” said Asuna. “That’s sure comforting…”

“Eh…” Mikoto looked away sheepishly. “Sounds stupid when you put it that way.”

“Come on,” said Asuna. “Just talk about it. You’ll feel better.”

“I’m not sure about that,” said Mikoto.

“At least give it a try,” said Asuna. “Look, this is SAO we’re talking about. We’ve all had our fair share of trauma.”

Mikoto nodded. “O-okay… I guess it started after we beat the first floor boss. I met a little girl named Kurami. She was only around six, and she was scared. She logged onto SAO on her own, and she had nobody to turn to. I decided I’d help her, ‘cause… you know, I couldn’t just leave her.”

“Yeah… the kids who logged into SAO alone are in a tough situation,” said Asuna.

“Yep,” said Mikoto. “Then, one day I left her at one of those daycares they have on the first floor. I figured it was a good place for her since the first floor only has low level monsters, and the town is massive, so there was less of a chance for her to wander into monster territory if the supervisors ever lost her. A good place to make sure she’s safe while I went to clear a dungeon. Then… it happened.”

“What?” said Asuna.

“Remember the Aincrad Liberation Front?” said Mikoto.

“The largest guild in SAO,” said Asuna. “Yeah, also called The Army. They were formed with some pretty good intentions, but lately they’ve been a bit out of control.”

“Yeah,” said Mikoto. “Some of the bottom feeders who aren’t strong enough to clear dungeons, but powerful enough to harass the lower level children who weren’t able to move past the first floor had been hanging out on the first floor. When the daycare wouldn’t pay the ‘taxes’ they set, they kidnapped a few of the kids and brought them to the den of one of the field bosses that had been defeated after floor twenty-two was cleared…”

Mikoto clenched her fist. “I hunted them down… I was furious. I beat them down so easily, that I had them crying at my feet, but, as it turned out, one of the players didn’t feel so happy about me disrespecting The Army so much. He tried to stab me from behind. My regeneration stats weren’t very high back then, so… I would have died… if Kurami hadn’t thrown herself in at the last second.”4Oh.
On one hand, I’d like to poke fun of the ass-pull nature of the story.
On the other hand, I really can’t.

Asuna put a hand to her mouth in horror as she imagined a small child throwing herself in front of a sword blade.

“Everyone has their own reasons for playing solo…” Mikoto whispered. “Some are Beta Testers like Kirito who are judged just because they happen to be ahead of everyone else in skill… Some just aren’t cut out to be with others because they create pain for whomever they meet. When a person sacrifices their life for somebody who’s such a nobody that she can only remember her name… it’s a foolish act in a world full of Vultures to eat away at the suffering that rots in the graveyard. I guess it’s nice that this is a virtual world… no bodies to clean up and remind us of the pain.”

Asuna blinked tears out of her eyes and grabbed Mikoto in a hug.

Mikoto stammered in surprise. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“Let it out,” Asuna whispered. “Come on… you’ve been holding back all the pain, haven’t you? Just let it out..”

“St-stop that…” Mikoto muttered as tears began to well up. “I-I’m not going to… to… cry…”

Mikoto began sobbing into Asuna’s shoulder. Asuna only hugged her tighter.5Okay.
Remember when I was complaining about Misaka being overly tsundere? I guess I take that back. It’s justified.

“I… I…” Mikoto could barely even form syllables as her hot tears poured onto Asuna. “I was… never worth it…”

“Don’t you dare say that,” said Asuna. “If somebody cares about you enough to take a blade for you, then that means they knew well enough to think you were worth it… and you definitely are.”

“Asuna…” said Mikoto. “Thank you. Both you and Kirito aren’t like the other people in this game. I don’t completely understand, but you both are like bright lights in a dim dungeon.”6Alright, so all that was surprisingly emotional for an ass-pull backstory and I was not prepared. Now, back to our regularly scheduled snark.

Asuna looked around the cave for a minute. “By the way, how did you find this place? It looks pretty bare and insignificant. Why would a game designer even bother putting this here?”

“I don’t know.” said Mikoto pointing at the chest. “For whatever was in there?”

“Seems like an awful lot of trouble for a hidden treasure chest,” Asuna muttered, standing up and touching the wall.7…You don’t play many RPGs, do you?

Suddenly, there was a glow, and part of the wall shifted with a giant boom. A massive door became visible. It was shaped like a giant green petal with two statues on either side. Asuna and Mikoto exchanged glances.

“A-Asuna? I-is that what I think it is?” Mikoto whispered.

“It’s… the door to the main Boss on this floor,” Asuna confirmed. “Oh my God… w-we’re not even scheduled to finish mapping the entire forest dungeon for another three weeks…”

Mikoto stood up and took her sword from Asuna. “You what we have to do.”

Asuna nodded. “We need to take a look inside… and run right back out. We can’t take a floor boss without a lot of backup, but we need to get an idea of what we’re up against.”

Mikoto and Asuna pushed on the door, opening it slowly. When the door was open, they both walked into the room. The room was completely dark. Then, lights switched on from somewhere. It looked like the inside of a temple with colorful pillars walls. An assortment of golden body parts were piled in the middle of the room. Mikoto could make out hands and a face. Then, the air seemed to shift.

The body parts began to float, and some kind of dark substance seemed to be connecting them together. When it was finished, it had formed a large statue with six arms. The lower half was stuck to the floor on some kind of round pedestal. Two of its massive metallic hands held disk-like blades. In the center of its body, was a large pulsating red sphere that seemed almost like a heart.

A large icon appeared near the giant boss: Ancient Automaton, Koloktos.9Have I mentioned the shoehorning? I feel like I’ve mentioned the shoehorning.

“Woah!” Mikoto yelled.

“Move!” Asuna ordered, pulling Mikoto’s arm.

The pair bolted from the room and dropped to their knees outside the entrance, the stone doors slamming shut behind them.

“Th-that… was huge…” said Mikoto. “It seems like its weak spot in that heart thing in its chest.”

“Yeah…” said Asuna. “If it can defend itself with those arms, then we’re going to need to keep those arms busy while the other go for the heart. Not to mention, it looks like it can throw those blades… nasty range and versatile defense.”

“Guess this is one meeting I’m not going to be late for,” Mikoto said with a cheerful chuckle.

“That boss is actually from an older video game that was made by the Nintendo Company years ago,” said Asuna. “I know some people who still play it. I heard from the SAO ads before the game came out that they would be adding a guest boss, but I didn’t know it would be so soon.”10Ass-pull explanation for author laziness.

“That’s good isn’t it?” Mikoto asked. “That means you would know how to fight it!”

“Not necessarily,” said Asuna. “The difference between Aincrad bosses and that of conventional video games is that Aincrad’s are way better at homing in on targets, countering attacks, and adapting to players’ fighting styles, even with their default patterns. I’d say Koloktos’s AI was enhanced to match the bosses of SAO, and he’ll be much more difficult.”

Mikoto paused. “So… do you think anybody in SAO has ever played that old game you’re talking about?”

“Maybe. It would be good to ask around.” said Asuna.

Suddenly, the giant stone door started reopening on its own. Mikoto jumped, surprised at the sound. “Eh?”

Asuna drew her blade and spun around it around. “Hey! Who’s there? Don’t go in that room! You’ll regret it!”

There was no answer. At least, no audible answer. Suddenly, before Asuna and Mikoto knew what was going on, the two of them were suddenly pushed right into room by a pair of hands.

MisakaLovesYou here. I’m not sure what this place is XD.. and.. making bad fan fictions a bit more tolerable.. eheh.. is this a roast site? XD (not sure.. just happened to see this after I googled myself out of curiosity) not exactly glad I found this.. but I guess I learn as I go.